Tuesday, December 09, 2008

Favorite e-mail from finals week.....

Before you read these, you should know a little about the final.

It was a comprehensive 100 question multiple choice and True/False exam.

All questions from the first half of the course were take directly from the mid-term (also a 100 question mc & t/f exam).

Oh yah, I almost forgot to tell you, this was an open book, open note, exam taken on-line without supervision.

In order to cut down on the obvious ability for students to share information, I set up the exam so that each student received a different random order of questions and could only answer one question at a time and there was no back-tracking...........

Class averages on the Final Exam were:

My two in-class (sometimes called land) section's averages were 71.77 and 71.75; whereas the on-line section's average was 75.02..... My presence may be irrelevant!!!! (These averages were for students who actually took the exam - there were some who skipped it and received a zero......


Anyway, the e-mails follow:

I just took the Final, and did not do as good as I thought I would. I believe it is going to bring my grade down, even though I have gotten 100's on all my assignments and discussions, except 1 I got a 90. I really thought I would receive an A, and I think now because I did poorly on my final I will be 1 point away. Is there any way I can take the final over, or anything I can do to receive an A, please???

Followed by:

I will immediately retake or whatever will be possible to do better. I obviously was not as prepared as I thought I was. I apologize for any inconveince. [notice misspelling of inconvenience]

and another:

I was wondering if you offered extra credit?

I just took the MIS exam. I must say it was one of the hardest exam I have
ever taken in my life. I studied for it before I attempted it and I did not
even get the chance to finish it. I was on a good track I felt and then I
started running out of time so I just had to start clicking random answers
in hopes to choose the right answer! I felt I could have used a little more
than 2 hours! Anyways, with such a low score on the grade I know I will do
poorly in the class now, probably, I cannot afford this! Do you plan on
curving the exam? Is there anything I can do to raise my exam score?

Missed an A by 0.75, almost made the Dean's list again. I enjoyed the class.
[I rounded this one up and this student received an A..... He did make the Dean's list again!!!]

That's not so many comments for the 106 students I have - what a great job.....

The end of the semester brings many interesting comments such as these...... I am sure that you have your own interesting (or like this one, not so very interesting) stories and, of course, that is why we blog....

happy trails to you until we blog again...., john
My friend Zeno on his blog Zeno's Happiness posted a video about being in search of pie..... I thought it would be fun to look at a somewhat different video concerning Pi....... click on the following link

In search of Pi

To be honest, I like Zeno's pie better than my pi...... Remember that it is better to split a hair -
pi vs pie than to split an infinitive or an atom.........

it's finals week.....................do I need to say any more than that?????

Peace, john

Monday, December 08, 2008

Santa came early to our house!!!
Today the installer arrived to install our new windows!!!
There Santa is taking out our the old windows in the dinning room -

Here is his sleigh and some of the wonderful packages he brought to our home
Here are the installed windows in the front!!

We are so fortunate to get our Christmas presents early!!!

Cheers to all, john